Wow. Just wow.

[mellymell]

I'm still kind of buzzing from the overwhelming energy of Saturday. So much joy and love was in the air. It truly was an amazing experience! As I told Chris Saturday night, I was prepared for the event, but not for the experience. Thanks to everyone who was a part of it!

Friday was a hectic day for sure. By 10:30am when I showed up at the bridesmaids' luncheon, I had already been all over town. The luncheon was so much more than I was expecting. Pat and Janie really went all out. My pictures are here, and my sister-in-law, Amy's pictures are here. The ladies in the aprons are Pat on the left and Janie on the right. All of the food was delicious and so wonderfully presented! I'm sure there are more pictures on the way.

Much chaos ensued after the luncheon until the rehearsal dinner. Chris went out and ran more errands and I stayed home trying to pack up everything we'd need for the wedding. I had to sit down at one point and breathe. I had been running at top speed since 8:30am and really just needed to rest for a second.

While we were running around in chaos, my oldest brother, Mike and his son Matthew and wife Amy went to my mother's grave site. They got some great pictures there.

Here are Mike's pictures of the rehearsal dinner at Green Hills Grille. Again, I'm sure more pictures will arrive.

We still had so much left to do Saturday morning. Unfortunately, we didn't have time Friday night to take all of the stuff we had packed up to the Lodge. So we still had that to do, plus lots of other things that were supposed to be done Saturday morning. So, again, much chaos and pushing back of times.

I'm so glad our photographer was a friend of ours and not a perfect stranger. She would have been pissed otherwise, I think. We had scheduled pictures to begin at 1pm, but I was just starting to get dressed by then. Turned out that in order to get my belt of trim into place, branflake had to sew it onto the dress with me in it, and incidentally, sew me into the dress in the back to get it to work right. So, at about 10 'til 3pm (3 being when the ceremony was supposed to start), we finally started pictures. We quickly did some of us together and the wedding party and then went ahead and started the ceremony so that we weren't too late.

The ceremony went beautifully, or so I'm told. We couldn't have asked for more perfect weather. Bright shining sun and a cool, constant breeze. No one missed their queues and Lily (the flower girl) only had a little outburst because Zach (the ring bearer) stole some of her petals from her basket. The music the band chose for the ceremony was absolutely perfect. They were a great fit for the reception as well. Everyone really enjoyed them I think.

So far, we've only got Mike and Amy's pictures from the wedding, and those are here. I'm sure more are on the way. Lori called and said she delivered our pictures digitally to Ian so he could do some photoshop work (create some black and whites and what not) and then get them to us for her.

The reception was fantastic! We had the drunken rowdies that hit the taps before the ceremony even started. All the food was wonderful. The lodge was decorated just beautifully. It was difficult as we posed for our cake pictures to not swoon it was so great! The whale cake looked perfect, too. I think everyone enjoyed themselves and I'm so glad for that.


There was a very brief "now what" feeling yesterday, but really, I've got my next major work already cut out for me.